El sáb., 17 may. 2025 4:03, Hervé Pagès <hpages.on.git...@gmail.com> escribió:
> FWIW NeedsCompilation is a misnomer. IIRC when I was discussing this > feature with R core members many years ago, it doesn't only flag > packages that require compilation (and thus contain arch-specific binary > files), but it is more generally intended to flag packages that the user > wouldn't be able to install **from source** on a pristine Windows or Mac > system because the installation process depends on tools that are not > necessarily present on such systems. > > For example I think I remember seeing at the time some packages that > were using 'make' for non-compilation related business. These packages > still needed to be flagged with 'NeedsCompilation: yes' in order to > recognize them as packages for which "binaries" needed to be made for > the purpose distributing them. > Then maybe such thing shouldn't be allowed? Iñaki > Packages without 'NeedsCompilation' field (or with 'NeedsCompilation: > no') don't need binaries because the source tarballs is guaranteed to be > installable on **any** system, in particular on systems that don't have > any development tools. > > Best, > > H. > > On 15/05/2025 03:38, Iñaki Ucar wrote: > > On Thu, 15 May 2025 at 11:42, Jeroen Ooms <jeroeno...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> On Wed, May 14, 2025 at 11:05 PM Simon Urbanek > >> <simon.urba...@r-project.org> wrote: > >>> Can you give an example, please? I wonder if there is a real use-case > or just bad package design. > >> The case that bit me yesterday was a Bioconductor package Rigraphlib, > >> see > https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/src/contrib/Rigraphlib_1.0.0.tar.gz > >> > >> This package builds a static library entirely from a configure script. > >> Because there is no 'src' dir, we assumed the package to be all-arch, > >> and get linking errors when trying to use it on another arch then it > >> was built for. Arguably this is indeed bad package design, but that is > >> hard to protect against. > > The opposite case is also true: there is a src directory but no > > compilation happens. This is a problem for deb/rpm shipment for two > > reasons. In rpm packaging at least, archful packages are inspected to > > extract debuginfo; since there is no compiled output there, this fails > > and the whole build fails. If the build succeeds (e.g. debuginfo is > > disabled), then we are building the same thing for all architectures, > > when there should be just one, noarch, for all. > > > > I can list at least 3 examples of this: > > > > - BANOVA: requires compilation, there is a src directory, nothing > > happens there, no source files, just a Makefile sitting there. > > - mixl: same, and the Makefile is just used to print if OpenMP is > supported (?). > > - mathjaxr: same, and the Makefile is used to install a javascript > library (!). > > > >>> I wouldn't think that should happen as configure is supposed to only > guide the compilation in src - if there is no src no binaries are expected > as the package did not provide any native sources hence there should be no > binary content. This looks like something that could be added to R CMD > check? > >> In that case maybe R should warn if it runs a package configure script > >> but there is no "src"? And check if NeedsCompilation: yes is set? > >> > >> One way or another, what matters is that when R runs configure or make > >> during install, the value in the "Built" field in the binary package > >> should contain the platform value. This is also important when distros > >> ship R packages in deb or rpm format, to prevent packages that have > >> compiled code from getting "Architecture: all" and be installed on the > >> wrong platforms. > > IMHO, the flag NeedsCompilation in the DESCRIPTION file should be the > > one and only source of truth here, regardless of the presence or not > > of a src directory. Then I see two paths here: > > > > - Either the developer is responsible for setting this flag, and the R > > CMD check should fail if it's yes but no compilation happens or the > > other way around. > > - Or R CMD build is responsible for setting this flag after checking > > if compilation happens or not. > > > -- > Hervé Pagès > > Bioconductor Core Team > hpages.on.git...@gmail.com > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
